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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1970-09-17, Page 17BY G. MAC LEAD ROSS Robert Nisbet, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside, publishes an 'article under the abpve heading ' in the Well Street Journal for 1,8/8/70.. ,Its constrrning interest' lies , fn the, fact, that after .a spate of Commissions, Royal and plebeian,. of Committees, several of which contradicted themselves,and none of which held any conviction, here is a clean cut, piece of ' reasoned argument and thought. It brings to, mind the typical su*iming-up by a British judge, in the King's Bench Division ,a judge like Mr. • Justice McCartney for example, who would hear an involved case with Much patience and then, as with a knife, cut away all the dross and present to the jury a clean cut 'yea' or `nay' on which to rule. Thus suddenly we - discover there was no need for • "a group of .___the unwary, appointed by the unwilling, to undertake , the utterly unnecessary"; there was no o'ecasion for experiments with rats from which to correlate human behaviour. As for the • solution the good Professor propounds? Had he been a soldier he- would have paraphrased Monty's dictum;, "There are no bad Universities, only ' bad Presidents,,_ or__.__ Principals, or whatever you wish • ...tQ call. them. - THE RENAISSANCE ' OF "AUTHORITY" Memory is too vivid of the occurrencies at Berkeley, - Harvard, Columbia, Michigan . and George Williams etc. etc., so that the :prospect of .the coming • academic year is not exactly ryAr pleasing. Cambodia and Kent State, each sufficient reason for • additional 'scuttlings and jettisonings, around the country of "Authority", and nothing generates causes of revolt and . insurrection like the presence of • a permanent cadre . of left -militants seeking 'causes. How then do we account for • this sudden affection of liberal hearts for "Authority"? First there • is _ the sheer fatigue occasioned by militant causes, of which there have been too many for too long. Second, public patience is running out. After all, great societies have existed 9 before without universities and they certainly can again. There are other existing 'sources of such knowledge, needing only to be developed.and multiplied. As such they will be cheaper and more efficient than _ the content of 'the .average ' American University: an unique structure of authority - resident in an unique intellectua_ l _communi:ty, Little else! Third, there is the current state of academic freedom on 1 the Campus. Freedom to teach and to learn is the principal casualty. When authority collapses in an institution the scene is invaded by a host of petty tyrannies, no single one decisive in itself, but taken in the aggregate, capable of fettering enquiry • in the classroom, . and extinguishing free in,tellectiial life on campus. Stchtyrannies range from direct violence, through semi-viQlencer building blockades, and picket lines, all, the wag. --to, corrosive emotional violence ccjhtained in public obscenity; epithet "and relentless political pressure. Add to ;all these, the incessant rounds ,of committee meetings; conferences with students, whose capacity to be listened -to, is one of the great natural forces in , the universe, and all too clearly the life of reason is made insecure, arid this in the, one community expressly dedicated to a life of reason. A rising weariness is detectable, even among faculty members, with the kind . • of explanation of student insurrections that is now standard when university presidents . are consulted by Members of • Congress, Presidential Commissions and Trustees. Black civil rights, Vietnam, the draft, imminent unemployment for some and the revolutionary ferment of modernity have all been overplayed: It is too easy to recall the revolution -prone 193Q's, when despite everything, . the campuses were not the settings • of vandalism, masquerading' as social idealism. It was not_the.studenti.faculty_ insurrections ._of ...the- 1960's which hr-.okmacademierauthon ,r: ;; The breakdown began in the • 1950's, and what is alone sociologically crucial was the prior, extreme.liberalisation and denl,gatisation, of traditional authority. Over and over again one finds the worst and most prolonged insurrections occur precisely _ when grants of governing, authority to students and faculty have been greatest. All this is beginning to become clear to the great majority of ,faculty the majority which chooses to be in class to teach from scholarly competence, not revolutionary impulse; the majority which cherishes the academic community. Hence the rising demand for restoration of authority on campus. 1r N 4 THE FRAILTY QF •"AUTHOFfITW Instant authority, is no more possible than instant freedom. The structure 9f authority is too fragile; too much the product of consensus, and of the accepted academic role by all concerned, to be expected t© rise phoenix -Like from the ashes of the 1960's. Until the late 1950's it was' unnecessary to prescribe meetings of classes for faculty. No other major institution had such ' a minimum of formal regulation, or . of contractual detail, as existed in the wc_ LIONS' Peanut Drive SEPT. 24 restoration university pp to that period, But such structures are, vulnerable -to even the feeblest and most jejeune of attacks. , Once such structures are flouted they. are destroyed and .cannot be put together again. It is 'highly improbable that ,present circirrnstanees will' produce anything but n'ew forms , of `power' on the campus. Whilst most people think of `freedom', as the consequence of eroding authority in a cu titre, this is not the case, for 'freedom' cannot exist save in circumstances of accepted authority. `Power' not `freedom' is " the invariable response in history to conditions of shattered authority. WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? What kinds of power are to, be ..expected on campus to provide the minimal order; required .,,, for ' academic performance in classroom, study and laboratory? We will - disregard the repressive laws passed by 32 States, as well as the relentless increase in size and technical effectiveness of campus police The first and • crucial .manifestation will be increased participating of Boards 'of ' Trustees — conservative Boards — through effective majorities in £oupJe=-_ of academic aut academic, including curricular affairs on campus, While, this may' be regrettedr the lay Board is sovereign in American colleges and universities. Such trustee intervention will touch ,areas: • sacred to faculties: Areas . of appointment and promotior; of academic admigtions;t. • Of academic tenure, a d most particularly, curriculum. It is to be remembered that it was the devastation , of curriculum on campuses last spring, in the wake of .Cambodia and Kent -State, that :aroused Government and public to a degree of alarm that nothing, prior had been able to achieve.'' Thee second major manifestation of power will be a striking increase in administrative management of all spheres of academic life. tJ ni v rsity ,,Presidents are becoming stronger. The striking ekample set by President Hayakawa of San .Francisco State has virtually revolutionised. trustee, alumni, and public conception of what 'a college or university president should be. The search for stronger presidents is plainly already on. The combination of academic knowledge, temperamental buoyancy and fortitude displayed by Dr. Hayakawa, is not common. But such Mar 40 years Mr. and Mrs: Alvin Proctor, 192 Britannia Road "West, Goderich, celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary Saturday, September 12, at a family dinner and evening reception for friends at -the home, of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Orr. • The couple were married in Clinton with Rev. Holmes , officiating. They have farmed most of their married lives in Goderich Township : until retiring . two years ago to Goderich. They have four children, Mrs. Charles (Jean) Kallestine, and Jack, both of Colborne ,'Township; .Mrs. Charles (Beverley) Orr, and Bill, both of Goderich Township; and 11 grandchildren. ' Twen€- 'two persons including Mr.Proctor's mother, Mrs. George Proctor of ',Goderich, Goderich, sat down to a family dinner, - A reception followed with guests coming from Rockwood, Michigan, Mitchell, Seaforth, London; Clinton and Goderich. Many cards of __.congratulations and -lovely _. gifts were received. REMEMBER HELP YOUR RED CROSS TO HELP combinations, exist in university faculties and there will be no need to go to industry, t6 the military or to Foundations for such men. Such recourse would be a selfmdefeating mistake inasmuch Gas their ignorance of the , details . the ever -vital details of academic society makes them .the prey of every academic charlatan on campus. But strong Presidents will require strong 'presidencies'. Trustees , appearto- be recognising that only on,e requirement is needed of a new. President: Maintain academic' and civil order. With strong presidencies there will' be strong . administrations; strong provosts,- t5. deans and 'department chairmen. •Much of the decline -of academic authority after World War H can be traced to the degredation of these administrative positions, especially , that _of the all-important department chairman. With. these a strengthened administrations there cannot help but be weakened faculties politically weakened that is. This may have its advantages, for there are many teachers and scholars who believe faculty political strength is nurturing culture " for permanent faculty . • politics. There is much . evidence to support the view that the best of faculty members; assessed by scholarly and teaching distinction, stay farthest from "the • weird combination of Jacobin democracy and Byzantine bureaucracy that American university faculties 1 -have delighted in constructing 'of recent times. Such individuals • elected academic life to teach and 'do research not• to run for office. To borrow from Yeats* In academie politics, "the best lack` all conviction, while the worst are filled- with passionate intensity" - These. then, are the major changes likely during the next year or two. Among other changes, for good or bad, will almost certainly be abolition of tenure, • for nowhere else in the intellectual establishment are 'mediocrity of mind, laziness and calculated subversion of role, reinforced''by the mystique of tenure. An anachronism, for many years, it will shortly become a memory. There may be other changes, for example the clearing of the jungle of overgrowths in the forms of expensive, distracting bureaus, centers, and institutes, which ' have arisen under the university's Faustian assumption of the role of Chief of Research Eswta-blishment; of '. Super-uirnanitarranism;t of Patron' of All Arts; of Adjunct Government to Washington of Benign Therapist to identify searching youth and of Loyal Revolutionary.. Opposition. Taking them all together, it is hard to imagine much teaching or scholarship getting done; who knows? Perhaps as a consequence of these changes the , University can commence once again the slow ascent of academic Olympus, to become once more the intellectual community, built around the learned , disciplines and professions,rather' than what it now so plainly • is: Mere microcosm of society; very expensive and ' unneeded microcosm of society. * Yeats "The Second Coming". 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